Where does meaning come from? Is it something we stumble upon, fully formed, like a diamond in a mine? Or is it something we actively create, spinning it from the raw, chaotic data of our own experience? We are, all of us, constantly telling ourselves stories to make sense of the world, to draw a line from one event to the next and give it significance. A performance, at its best, can be a perfect microcosm of this deeply human process—a temporary, shared space where meaning is not found, but forged.

My “Myth of Everything and Nothing” effect is built entirely around this idea. It explores how we, as a group, can start with absolute chaos and arrive at a single, shared, impossible moment of meaning.

The Beauty of the Blank Canvas

The starting point for many profound experiences is not a clear path, but a blank canvas. It is a state of “not knowing,” of being presented with a collection of seemingly random, disconnected elements. When I begin the “Myth of Everything and Nothing,” I present the audience with just that: a jumble of words, a scatter of images, a series of unrelated numbers. It is, by design, meaningless.

But our brains are profoundly uncomfortable with chaos. Faced with randomness, the mind immediately and automatically begins to search for patterns, for connections, for a story. This deep-seated human instinct to find order in the noise is the engine of the entire experience. The performance doesn’t have to create this impulse; it only has to trust that it’s there and allow it to do its work.

The Active Creation of Meaning

A blank canvas is just the beginning. A story is not told until choices are made. In the journey from chaos to meaning, the audience is never passive. Their choices, their focus, and their decisions are what begin to give the experience its shape.

As the ‘Myth of Everything and Nothing’ progresses, the audience’s choices systematically narrow down the infinite possibilities. One random word is selected over others. One image is focused upon. One number is freely named. Each decision is a brushstroke on the canvas, transforming the random elements into something specific, personal, and intentional. This process is a beautiful metaphor for the “observer effect” in quantum physics: the very act of observing and choosing something changes its nature. The audience isn’t just watching something happen; they are participants in the act of creation.

The Emergent Narrative

The final, impossible conclusion of the effect does not spring fully formed from my mind. It is not a secret I keep and then reveal. Instead, it emerges, organically and unexpectedly, from the shared journey of the group. The final reveal—where the scattered elements are shown to have coalesced into a single, stunningly improbable, and meaningful outcome—feels so powerful because it doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to everyone in the room.

The meaning is profound because it wasn’t told to them; they were instrumental in its creation. They started with nothing—a sea of chaos—and through their collective attention and choices, they created everything: a unique, unrepeatable story that is theirs and theirs alone.

From Chaos to Craft

Meaning isn’t a destination we find on a map. It is a path that we create, moment by moment, through the power of our attention and the courage of our choices. We are all co-creators of our reality, constantly turning the “nothing” of raw, unfiltered data into the “everything” of personal significance. The world provides the raw materials, but we provide the craft.

So, here is a challenge. Look at the chaos in your own life—the unrelated events, the confusing data, the noise. What meaning could you craft from it, simply by choosing where to focus your attention?

Internal Links: The Unseen Script: How Our Minds Follow Pre-Written Narratives, Why Your Choices Matter: The Illusion of a Perfect Decision

External Link: A primer on Narrative Psychology from Psychology Today